The number of immigrants traveling to the U.S. from Central America has sharply declined during President Donald Trump's tenure, the New York Times reports.
Trump campaigned on the promise that he would build a wall along the southern border to keep immigrants from entering the U.S. illegally and also find and remove those in the country already. Since he took office, he's increased the presence of immigration officers along the southwest border and issued an executive order blocking people from six Muslim-majority nations from entering the country.
In late May, the president offered up a budget proposal including $2.6 billion for border security, of which $1.6 billion set aside for "bricks and mortar for a wall."
He also took a broader aim at undocumented immigrants in his budget by proposing the U.S. deny them tax credits, safe shelter and jobs.
"I got scared of what's happening there," Eswin Josue Fuentes told the Times about his decision to stay in Honduras with his 10-year-old daughter. Fuentes had plans to be smuggled into the U.S. but said because of Trump's hardline stance on immigration he changed his mind.
The number of undocumented immigrants caught or stopped at the southwest border fell 60 percent from February through May of this year according to Customs and Border Protection and smugglers in Honduras say their business has slowed significantly since Trump took office.
"People think he's going to kick everyone out of the country," a migrant smuggler named Marcos told the Times. "Almost nobody's going."
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